


So Close...

by afterandalasia



Category: Enchanted (2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Angst, Break Up, Community: disney_kink, F/F, Gay Sex, Happy Ending, Infidelity, Lesbian Sex, M/M, Non-Endgame Edward/Giselle (Enchanted), Non-Endgame Robert Philip/Nancy Tremaine, Partner Swapping, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-31 12:15:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6469711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nancy and Robert are working out their relationship. Slowly. Very slowly, yes, but she's sure that they'll get there in the end.</p><p>Then Robert's new neighbours move in, and rocking the boat does not even begin to describe it. Edward and Giselle seem to be living a fairytale-perfect lift, but not only do the cracks begin to show in that facade, but in the one that Nancy and Robert have carefully built as well.</p><p>Before they know it, all of them have been changed, irrevocably, by what has happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> From the epic [anon prompt](http://disney-kink.livejournal.com/4400.html?thread=3858992#t3858992) on the Disney Kink Meme.
> 
> What I ended up writing was probably angstier, and less smutty, than originally intended by the OP. (And I missed the bonus of them being in the same room, whoops.) But there is definitely smut, and there is a happy ending, so there is that, at least.
> 
> Note regarding the infidelity: the fic opens as Edward/Giselle and Nancy/Robert, and there are definite cracks in the Nancy/Robert relationship and emotional infidelity that takes place before Nancy puts them on break to figure it out. Edward/Robert happens, then Edward breaks up with Giselle immediately, and Giselle/Nancy get together properly after that.
> 
>  
> 
> Chapter 1 smut notes: one dirty dream with lesbian sex, cunnilingus, doesn't quite reach fingering.

With some things, it is very difficult to find a clear beginning, and very difficult to find a clear end. People always want to know what happened before, or what happened after. This time, though, Nancy had to say that it was perfectly easy to say exactly when the whole thing had started.  
  
It started when the new couple moved in next door.  
  
Robert told her about it at first, but it didn’t register for a while. He said that they were ‘eccentric’, and she wondered whether that meant British. It wasn’t until one Saturday, when she was round just to visit, that a ring at the doorbell caught her attention. Considering that Robert was at that point trying to persuade Morgan not to wear a princess dress to the park, Nancy made the call to go and answer it herself.  
  
It was ten in the morning in New York. Just about the last thing that she might have been expecting at this moment was for the woman outside, dressed in a pink dress and with flowers in her hair, to present her with a _huge_ smile and a plate of cookies, as well as a suddenly distracting amount of cleavage.  
  
“Good morning!” she said, in a voice that made you expect twittering birds. “I’m Giselle. I just came round to say hello!”  
  
Before Nancy knew it, Giselle was in the apartment, feeding them all cookies and admiring the curtains. She flitted and even, good lord, twirled, her skirt twisting around her legs and her hands clasped to her chest half of the time. She seemed sweet, enthusiastic and worryingly cheery for this time in the morning. And the cookies were really rather good, as well.  
  
And she could talk. Oh goodness, she could talk. Without you wanting to do anything other than sit there and watch her, for that matter, which was not something that Nancy saw too often. Morgan was outright starry-eyed listening to the young woman, and Nancy realised that she was utterly speechless as well.  
  
She and her boyfriend Edward came from a little town out in the country, she discovered. They had met at their school prom and had been going out ever since. Edward’s family were some powerful corporation that Giselle didn’t seem to particularly understand, but it meant that he didn’t have to work for a living. Giselle, on the other hand, worked part-time in a very upmarket clothes shop in the middle of town, and in her spare time seemed to cook, paint and make her own clothes.  
  
The information was like a whirlwind. And somehow Nancy just found herself grinning stupidly, chin propped up in one hand, and coming back down to earth with a bump as the doorbell went again.  
  
“I’ll get it,” said Robert, who was looked more stunned than anything else that he had sat through Giselle’s words. He disappeared off in the direction of a front door.  
  
Morgan leant forwards conspiratorially. “Are you sure you aren’t a lost princess?” she whispered.  
  
It earnt the sweetest giggle. “No, but sometimes I feel like one. Like I’m just the luckiest girl in the world!”  
  
Nancy wasn’t sure whether she wants to _be_ Giselle, or whether she wanted to pin her to the table and lick her breasts. It was very disconcerting.  
  
“Giselle!” came a booming voice from the hallway. Nancy turned round in astonishment as Giselle gave a squeal, jumped to her feet, and ran through the room to spring into the man’s arms. He twirled her through the air, and Nancy wondered whether she had ever seen that outside a film before. “My love! How are you?”  
  
They exchanged kisses on the cheek and beamed at each other. Once again, Nancy felt the urge to check for a director.  
  
“I’m just perfect,” Giselle gushed. She looped one arm around the man’s and pulled him towards the kitchen. “Everyone, this is Edward, my fiancé.” She fluttered at him. “Edward, this is Robert, and this is his daughter Morgan, and this is Nancy.”  
  
“Greetings,” said Edward magnanimously.  
  
Robert blinked at him in surprise; Nancy felt her lips twitching. “Uh... hi,” said Morgan flatly.  
  
Edward gave her an uncertain smile. “Well,” he said after a moment, “it is very pleasant to have made your acquaintances, but unfortunately Giselle and I have other pressures today.”  
  
“See you again soon!” said Giselle, as she was swept out of the apartment again.  
  
Finally, Robert managed to close the door again. “Okay,” he said after a moment. “That was... interesting.”  
  
Interesting, Nancy thought, was something of an understatement.  
  


 

 

 

  
  
She wasn’t sure whether she was expecting to see them again soon, but upon discovery of the plate – and was that hand painted? Seriously? – that Giselle had left there, Nancy declared that she would take it back. Robert looked a little surprised, but then shrugged and let it slide. She found herself feeling surprisingly nervous as she went round to the next apartment and rapped on the door, faintly hearing music inside.  
  
Silence fell abruptly, and she realised that it had been singing. Giselle opened the door, this time wrapped in a towel and with her hair loose, and gave a little twinkly wave of her fingers. “Oh, Nancy! Come in, come in!” Before Nancy could say anything, she found herself ushered into the room and given a – slightly damp – hug. “It’s so lovely to see you again!”  
  
Edward was nowhere to be seen. Nancy found herself taking in the pretty apartment: there were fresh flowers on various surfaces, the whole room smelt of lemon and mint, and Giselle was indeed just wrapped in a towel as she plucked the plate out of Nancy’s hands.  
  
“I didn’t even realise that I’d left this behind! Oh, thank you so much!”  
  
She swept through into the kitchen and slipped it straight into the sink, which was apparently full of big frothy bubbles. Nancy wondered vaguely whether she had fallen out of Stepford, and whether it had hurt.  
  
“Just one moment, and I’ll be right with you!”  
  
Once again, Nancy found herself unable to get a word in before Giselle slipped down the corridor and into one of the rooms. Curiosity growing, Nancy followed, glancing into the two bedrooms. It surprised her to see that one was decked out in red and brown, and had men’s clothes strewn across the floor, whilst the other – into which Giselle had disappeared – was pink and white and lacy and smelt of perfume.  
  
She glanced in for just a moment, and caught sight of Giselle just as the red-head dropped her towel onto the bed. For a moment Giselle paused, clothes laid out on the bed in front of her, and stretched her arms up above her head.  
  
Oh good grief. She’d known this woman for the whole of three days, and good lord she had fantastic breasts. Nancy turned away from the door and put one hand over her eyes, telling herself that it had clearly just been far too long since she’d managed to arrange some time alone with Robert to get her libido under control. Either the man was astonishingly in control of his own body, or he was indulging in some alternate uses of shower time as well. Nancy was no fool to that.  
  
Shaking her head, she returned to the living room, and wondered whether it was getting hot in there up until the point that Giselle bounded back in again, dressed in something pink and clingy and Nancy had to really work not to stare. “So,” she said, with a bright smile, “what was it that you wanted?”  
  
“I cannot remember,” Nancy replied.  
  


 

 

 

  
  
It went on for a while. Occasionally Nancy wondered whether there was something else to it, some secret tragedy, but there was absolutely nothing about Edward or Giselle’s behaviour that gave them the slightest notice. She and Robert had even gotten tipsy one night – and Robert hardly _ever_ got tipsy, so that in itself was a pretty big thing – and had mused about possible wild backstories for their new neighbours. Robert went down witness protection lines. Nancy favoured that it was some elaborate LARP thing, and then had needed to explain to Robert what LARP was, how she had come across it and how no, really, she had left it behind her in college.  
  
She had tried to distract him after that by taking her shirt off. It had been pleasurably successful, at least for a while, but then she had still ended up sneaking out of the house before midnight because of the rules that Robert kept. She considered hailing a pumpkin instead of a taxi.  
  
After a few weeks, Nancy found herself visiting the apartment block to meet Giselle, rather than Robert. The two of them would talk about nothing, or go walking in the park, and more than once Giselle seemed to show a precognisant ability to find areas where music and dancing could be found, and they danced hand-in-hand like children again to the beat.  
  
She encouraged Robert to make friends with Edward as well; it seemed sometimes like he knew so few people outside of his work. He rolled his eyes at first, and muttered something to the tune that there was hardly likely to be anything that they had in common, but with a bit more prodding and poking they seemed to warm to each other. It became quite normal for the boys to go off and watch some game that Edward had good tickets for, whilst Nancy, Giselle and Morgan went to the pool, or stayed home watching girlie movies and doing silly makeup on each other. Edward and Robert would come home jubilant, especially if the New York teams had been winning, and would look almost as if they were ready for a night on the town. Edward would scoop the laughing Giselle up bridal-style and carry her around the room, and Nancy would receive an awkward hug and a peck on the cheek from Robert.  
  
Sometimes it was tempting not to get up from her cuddly warm spot on the sofa with Giselle at all.  
  
Morgan liked Edward just as much as she liked Giselle, it seemed, and when faced with all four of them hardly seemed to know who to talk to first. At Edward’s insistence, and to Robert’s dread, one weekend Edward had horse riding lessons arranged for her; she would not stop talking about it for the rest of the week. The weekend after, Robert was dragged along as well, and although he tried not to talk about it he ended up sitting on a cushion for some time.  
  
“She’s pretty, Giselle, isn’t she?” said Nancy conversationally one lunchtime. Robert looked up from his sandwich with a wary expression; he probably thought this was some sort of trap that women laid. “I mean, come on. It’s hard not to notice.”  
  
“I suppose so,” he replied. It was cagy, and she tilted her head. She knew that Robert’s first wife had been his sweetheart as well, when they were young; perhaps Giselle reminded him a little too much of those carefree days. Nancy would have killed for some. “They’re both young, though.”  
  
“Oh, come on, you act like we’re retiring,” she said with a laugh, and he gave a chuckle in reply though not much more. “Geez, neither of us has hit thirty-five yet. And they can’t be _that_ much younger.”  
  
You’re only as old as you feel, after all.  
  
(You’re only as old as the one you’re feeling, added a chirpy but inappropriate part of her mind, and she had to suppress another laugh at the thought.)  
  
She ran her foot up and down his leg, and he smiled fondly at her but then sat more upright, slipping out of her leg reach, and leant across the table to take her hand. “They’re good kids. Nice to have around.”  
  
And that, he made it quite clear, was the end of it. When they parted he diverted at the last moment to kiss just the corner of her mouth, and when she went to give his ass a squeeze she missed. It was all feeling a little half-hearted today.  
  
She went back to work, finished the day, waved goodbye to all of her staff. Home, a meal for one in front of the television, some gormless show, a scalding hot shower that completely steamed up her bathroom, and falling into bed without being able to drum up much enthusiasm for the book she was supposed to be reading. It was all very well saying that you were going to read the classics, but actually getting round to it was another thing altogether. And, all apologies to E. M. Forster, but he just didn’t seem that riveting this evening.  
  
For a moment, she allowed herself to wonder what books Giselle read. Maybe bodice-ripping trashy novels. The thought made her laugh aloud, relaxed her, and left a smile lingering on her lips even as she drifted into sleep.  
  


 

 

 

  
  
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Giselle whispered - _panted_ \- in her ear. Then Nancy was kissing her again, her mouth hot and hungry and, whatever she might have been saying, making it very clear in her actions what she thought of the matter.  
  
Giselle’s breasts, slight and soft, were warm against her hands; she had wanted to do this since that first time that she had saw them, within just days of their meeting. Her nipples were tight and pink and she bit her lip to suppress a gasp as Nancy licked them, drawing them into her mouth, letting just the slightest touch of her teeth put an edge on the sensation.  
  
Before she knew it they were on the bed, those wonderful sheets turning out to be silk, feather-soft beneath their skin. Giselle moaned as Nancy’s mouth trailed wet kisses down her body, leaving them to cool and dry in the air, until she reached the white cotton panties that Giselle had kept on, too coy or too hasty to remove. Their eyes met for a moment, then Nancy let her tongue press down hard on the cotton, feeling the dampness of Giselle’s skin beneath, and Giselle’s eyes fluttered closed. Nancy couldn’t help but wonder whether she’d even had sex before, whether she was some virginal princess or whether she and Edward got up to all sorts of unimaginably kinky goings-on in their apartment.  
  
Then she shifted her mouth to flick the tip of her tongue against Giselle’s clitoris through the fabric, and the sound that she got in response stopped her from giving a damn. She eased down the panties like she was unveiling a masterpiece, breathing in the smell of Giselle’s skin, her arousal, mouth peppering tiny kisses on the girl’s thighs. She barely seemed to have the presence of mind to wriggle the panties off and kick them over the end of the bed. A good thing that she did, really, considering that it barely took Nancy any time to return her mouth to the rather more interesting task of paying attention to Giselle’s lower lips, her clitoris, any point that would make her shift and tilt her hips up and make that wonderful little gasping sound in the depths of her throat. Nancy’s hand trailed slowly up the inside of Giselle’s thigh, the touch light, sensuous, feeling the almost-tremble of the muscles beneath as her fingers slipped higher.  
  
And then she woke up.  
  
“Shit,” said Nancy, not because the dream had been bad but because it had been interrupted, and then she felt bad anyway because really, having sex dreams about your boyfriend’s (partner’s? lover’s? Robert had never been very clear with the words) neighbour was probably not the best thing in the world to be doing.  
  
Even if it really had been rather a _good_ dream.  
  
Nancy groaned and rolled over, putting her pillow over her head as if to block out thoughts that were slipping into her mind from elsewhere. The last thing that she needed to get back to sleep was _that_ mental image, after all, of Giselle all flushed and gleaming with sweat and with her legs parted to-  
  
Oh, damn it. Squeezing her eyes shut, Nancy tried one last time to put all thoughts of the redhead firmly out of her mind. Especially since they were supposed to be having lunch the next day, and staring at your host’s cleavage was rarely to never encouraged.  
  


 

 

 

  
  
As it turned out, lunch transpired to be interesting in a different, and entirely unexpected, way.  
  
“You know, Edward’s been talking quite a bit about Robert lately,” it began. Spoken in the same honest and interesting tone that Giselle spoke about anything; Nancy wasn’t sure that she knew what gossip was, sometimes. She just seemed to want everyone to know everything about the world.  
  
“Oh?” Nancy replied.  
  
“Hmm,” Giselle agreed. There was the slightest little line between her eyebrows, the slightest downward curl at the corners of her mouth that marked her confusion. Nancy wanted to reach across and brush it away. “He’s been talking about how he feels that they aren’t spending enough time together. As if they’ve really connected.”  
  
“Really? Wow, Robert’s been... well, Robert’s not been saying much about anything really, come to think of it.”  
  
“Well, Edward does like to tell me what’s going on.” The smile returned, mercifully. “But yes, I think that he really likes Robert. It’s so sweet. He keeps talking about how he wants to do something really special for Robert’s birthday.”  
  
Nancy wondered whether Giselle knew quite how what she was saying sounded. “Edward isn’t... you know...”  
  
“Isn’t what?”  
  
For a moment Nancy hesitated, then she delicately put down her glass of ice tea and leant forward a little. “You know, bisexual. It sounds like he’s got a bit of a crush to me.”  
  
Giselle’s eyes went so wide that Nancy could see a ring of white all the way around the blue, and she immediately regretted her words. “Why, whatever do you mean? Why do you think that Edward would-”  
  
“Hey, hey, no, don’t worry,” said Nancy. She reached out to take hold of Giselle’s hands, but found herself holding the girl’s forearms instead, her own clasped in return. Giselle pulled them still closer together, her eyes still wide, lips slightly parted. That felt awkward to think. “I’m sorry, I’m sure it’s nothing. You know... he’s just more expressive than some guys. Some men would think it weird to talk so much about a friend, that’s all.”  
  
Giselle’s lip trembled. And _there_ , all of a sudden, was what Nancy had been half-jokingly thinking about all along: the little undercurrent that wasn’t made out of a world of Hallmark Cards and fairytales. “He’s the only person I’ve ever kissed,” she said, suddenly, the words almost blurted. “And he says that _I’m_ the only one that _he’s_ ever kissed as well. And it’s all like the books say it should be, you know, and he’ll give up his seat for me or give me his coat or-”  
  
“Giselle-”  
  
“-he’s just the perfect gentleman, and I know that I’m so lucky to have him, but how do you know what love really is?”  
  
The words ‘baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me no more’ were annoying forward in Nancy’s mind. She hushed the rogue neurons and moved her hands to Giselle’s shoulders.  
  
“Giselle, you just _know_. You and Edward, I mean... wow. You guys really do have the perfect fairytale. When you’re always happy to see him, and when you smile when you talk about him, and everything. You seem so... happy.”  
  
“He looks happy like that when he talks about Robert,” she said softly.  
  
_And I feel that way when I think about you,_ thought Nancy, but she didn’t dare say that aloud. “Come on, guys need friends as much as we do, right? They’re not _really_ from Mars, after all.”  
  
She said it heavy with sarcasm, and Giselle managed a weak little laugh. Nancy sat back in her chair, feeling as if she could breathe more easily just that little further from Giselle, but she left one hand resting lightly on the girl’s knee.  
  
“Thank you, Nancy,” Giselle whispered.  
  
“Hey, it’s nothing.” Nancy squeezed her knee a little, thankful that her hands didn’t shake but wondering when it was that she had become quite so good an actress as this. “We all have these moments, right? Just gotta trust ‘em.”  
  


 

 

 

  
  
Of course, that didn’t mean that she had forgotten what she had heard, and what she had said in response. Yes, Edward _was_ a lot more demonstrative than most of the men that Nancy had known – he was certainly more demonstrative than Robert, good grief – but the way that Giselle had described him just rang bells that Nancy was pretty sure that she was good with. She waited all of about five hours until she was ringing Robert’s doorbell and stepping inside without even waiting for him to get the bewildered look off his face.  
  
“Er... hi, Nancy,” he said, giving her a distracted kiss on the cheek. “What’s up?”  
  
“Hi, Nancy!” chirped Morgan from the living room, then went back to watching whatever was on the television. Some bright cartoon thing; she must have the remote herself, otherwise Robert would have put something sensible and serious on.  
  
“Hey, sweetie,” Nancy called back, then turned to Robert and found a smile before giving him a peck on the lips in return. “Sorry, Robert, just needed to talk to you. Can we go into the kitchen?”  
  
“Yeah, sure...” she couldn’t lie, she’d be looking confused to if he turned up at hers unexpectedly and asked to talk to her alone in the kitchen. But then again, that really wasn’t his sort of style, whereas it wouldn’t be the first time that Nancy had done something unexpected. She did try to keep him on his toes, after all.  
  
They moved through into the kitchen and Robert leaned back on the kitchen counter, a slight frown on his features. “Is everything okay? I wasn’t expecting you round this evening.”  
  
“I’m fine,” said Nancy quickly. “It’s just, well...” How to phrase this? There really wasn’t that much of a way to make it sound anything other than wild speculation. “I needed to talk to you about Edward and Giselle.”  
  
“Oh god, not this again,” he gave a sigh and an exaggerated roll of his eyes, though he didn’t bother moving from his leaning-post on the counter. “Look, Nancy, she’s pretty, but she’s really not my type. I don’t know-”  
  
“No, no, not Giselle. Mostly Edward. Well, just Edward, really. I... um...” she cast around for words, then finally threw caution to the wind. “I think that he fancies you.”  
  
She was mostly expecting a shocked reaction, or possibly an amused one depending on how good a mood Robert was in. Given his previous frown, probably shock. What she did not expect was for him to blush like a schoolboy sent a Valentine’s card by his classmate, and reach up to rub his chin, and the stubble there, distractedly. It was something that she hadn’t seen him do in quite a long time, and it actually surprised even her.  
  
“Well, I’m not sure about fancies...” he started.  
  
Her eyes went wide, and though she wasn’t exactly sure how to label the big ball of emotions in the centre of her chest, amusement had definitely just become a part of it. “You noticed as well!”  
  
Robert gestured for her to keep her voice down. “It’s not like that,” he sad. “I just get the feeling that he... looks up to me, you know. Like a guy thing.”  
  
“What, so a guy can’t fancy another guy? Robert, what century are you in?”  
  
He went an even darker shade of red, which at any other time she would have wanted to tease him for, but there was a distracted look on his face. “Look, it’s just... he’s not... damn it, Nancy.” Robert sighed. “Yes, he acts sort of... close, around me. You know. Like really close friends. But I didn’t really think that he – well, I _tried_ not to think that he – well, yes,” he finished, and Nancy wasn’t sure that anything in that had actually been a full sentence.  
  
“So you’ve noticed,” she said flatly.  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
Nancy rolled her eyes, not so much at the situation as the fact that Robert had gotten so coy about the entire thing. “Good lord, Robert, why didn’t you say something?”  
  
He looked at her as if she was mad. “What, say that another man has the hots for me? That anyone else has the hots for me? Why would I say that to my...”  
  
As he trailed off, Nancy gave him a pointed look. “Your what, Robert?”  
  
Again, the words failed him, and he shook his head. Nancy couldn’t help the look of anger that flitted across her features as she shook her head sharply.  
  
“Honestly,” she said. “You already spend more time with him than you do with me. Go and figure out how you feel about him, Robert, and then get back to me.”  
  
As she left, calling a goodbye to Morgan that felt far more cheery than she did, she faintly realised that she had not really even given Robert a chance to answer. Or, for that matter, quizzed him heavily about what his half of the feelings on the matter might be. Tears came to Nancy’s eyes, and her throat tightened, as she thought about next door and wondered more whether it was her own feelings for Giselle that she was thinking of, rather than anything else that might be going on.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 smut notes: male masturbation, imagined m/m fellatio; m/m fellatio/handjob.

It felt, to Robert, like the punchline was missing from the joke. Or like this was a sitcom, and there was going to be a big reveal at the end of the season that, aha!, Giselle and Edward had been actors all along. Because, surely, they could not be real. You couldn’t get that naively perfect a couple, they certainly wouldn’t move into New York City, and you wouldn’t get those... situations.  
  
The ones where he would go to the game with Edward, and when their team won they would end up whooping and hollering with the rest and then Edward would grab him in a hug that smelt of aftershave and washing powder and went on for just a little too long. The ones where they finished each others’ sentences. The ones where they would go out on a picnic with Morgan and would end up both playing tag with her, and it would only end when Edward bought Robert to the ground in a flying tackle, then giving a triumphant laugh. The ones where he was trying to teach Edward how to cook, because the man could hardly work out how to use a toaster, and he started to wonder whether there was a bit of playing-dumb going on to justify how much they touched.  
  
The ones he had occasionally considered trying to avoid, but had simply found that he did not want to.  
  
But the punchline never came, and after a while it became just a little too awkward and he ended up avoiding Edward for over a week. It might have gone on for longer were it not for the fact that Morgan had seemed pretty dejected over losing Edward’s company, but instead Robert invited both Edward and Giselle round for dinner one evening, only for Edward to say that Giselle would be busy, but he would love to come.  
  
Robert was hardly a culinary master, but he could produce something respectable when he tried hard enough, and even with Edward and Morgan ‘helping’ (he couldn’t even think the word with a straight face) he managed to produce spaghetti bolognaise and ice cream for dessert, and left the washing up in the sink afterwards.  
  
Edward was, of course, a Prince, cutting a dashing figure with a sheet tied round his neck and a spatula for a sword, and at first Morgan was his Damsel In Distress with Robert playing the evil sorcerer. Then Morgan obviously decided that she didn’t want to be the Damsel after all, and made Robert be the Princess whilst she was the evil witch who was holding him captive. And Robert could hardly remember the last time that they had this much fun.  
  
Morgan eventually fell asleep on the sofa, and Robert carried her to bed before returning to the kitchen to find Edward doing the washing up.  
  
“You don’t need to do that,” he said, mostly out of politeness but also because he’d seen Edward try before, and the man did not have a single domestic skill.  
  
“But Robert, I just want to help,” Edward replied.  
  
He was wearing the rubber gloves that Robert had bought and never actually used. For some reason, the sight made him want to laugh. Robert walked over, turned the tap off and pulled the plug out before looking back to Edward pointedly.  
  
“You’re a guest. Guests don’t do the washing up.”  
  
Edward stood there, with his hands dripping at his side. “I wanted to say thank you for this evening. I always enjoy myself so much when I’m with you, and I hate the thought of you doing all of the work for it.”  
  
“Hey,” said Robert, trying to force lightness into his voice. “That’s what friends are for, right?”  
  
“Can friends not also help with the washing up?”  
  
This time, Robert could not help laughing, but he made a lunge for the rubber gloves to claim them back. Edward dodged out the way, but then the chase was on, and they ran around the kitchen like a pair of children, Edward eventually running out into the living room with his arms stretched in front of him like a zombie and Robert chasing him, barefoot and the pair of them trying to suppress laughter so as not to wake Morgan again.  
  
Finally, Edward managed a misstep, and as he stumbled onto the couch Robert came in for another flying tackle (years of football in school, he supposed, paying off very late indeed) and pinned him down, grabbing hold of the gloves and ripping them off Edward’s hands.  
  
“Aha!” he declared, his evil sorcerer voice returning unbidden. “Now I have you!”  
  
Edward laughed breathlessly, and Robert became rather painfully aware that he was straddling the younger man as he pinned him to the sofa. With his own laughter, he got back to his feet again, bending over to pick up the rubber gloves and trying to ignore the growing discomfort in the region of his trousers.  
  
“Right,” he said triumphantly. “That’s settled. No washing up for you.”  
  
Edward sighed dramatically, lounging on the sofa for a moment longer, then got back to his feet. They met each other’s eyes, and for a moment there were a lot of things that Robert wanted to say, but then it grew awkward and passed.  
  
“I should get going,” Edward said. “Giselle was out this evening, but she’ll probably be back by now.”  
  
“Oh… of course,” he replied.  
  
They nodded to each other brusquely, then Edward left. With a groan, Robert went back into the kitchen and threw the rubber gloves back into the sink, then ran one hand through his hair. He couldn’t get out of his head how it had felt to pin Edward onto the couch, to straddle over him, and at the return of the thoughts he felt himself growing half-hard beneath his pants once again.  
  
“Shower,” he muttered to himself, and determinedly walked through to the bathroom, locked the door behind him, and got into the shower. At first he felt as if the water was washing away all of his thoughts, letting him be tranquil and clear, but it wasn’t long until he could feel a growing pressure on his attention from his groin.  
  
He leant back against the wall, cool tiles on his back and warm water on his front. The feel of the water running over his cock made his breathing quicken slightly, and he slid one hand down to wrap around the shaft. Just one of those things, he told himself as he began to slowly stroke, just something that needs taking care of.  
  
Within moments he was fully erect, his cock almost painfully hard, the head flushed and leaking precum that the shower could not quite wash away. Robert tightened his hold slightly, reaching up with his thumb to brush over the head with each stroke, resisting the urge to thrust hard into his hand as the pressure built.  
  
An image flashed without warning across his mind: Edward’s mouth on his cock, tongue swirling around the head. Robert groaned as he came, hard, cock pulsing as it spurted hot cum over his hand and the shower floor. When his mind cleared he was trembling, legs feeling weak, erection slowly subsiding in his hand as he rested his forehead against the wall to his side.  
  
“Shit,” he whispered to himself. “Shit… Edward.”  
  
He finished showering, wrapped a towel around himself, and fell into bed. Hopefully by the time that he awoke the next morning, this madness would have turned out to be all a dream.  


 

 

 

  
  
Of course, it was not a dream. Robert was some years out of his teens and had thought himself to be some years beyond the daily masturbation that those years seemed to demand, but he found himself having to deal with matters every time that he showered for the rest of that week. He tried to tell himself that it was just dealing with, as well, but it was difficult to say that when he found himself looking forward almost with yearning to the weekend, when he, Morgan and Edward were supposed to be going horse riding once again.  
  
The day was great, as it always was, riding followed by lunch in a complete junk fast food restaurant that Edward made Morgan promise not to tell Giselle about. Then Robert dropped off Morgan for one of her classes, and he and Edward shared a taxi back to the apartment block.  
  
“Are you all right, Robert?” Edward asked as he was staring out of the window. “You haven’t seemed quite yourself today?”  
  
“I’m fine,” Robert went to reassure, then realised that he was patting Edward’s knee and drew his hand back hesitantly. “I’ve just been a little busy this week, that’s all. A lot on my mind.”  
  
Edward glanced at the driver, then unbuckled his seatbelt and slid across before clipping himself back in again. He was always concerned about making sure that his seatbelt was on; even now, it made Robert manage a smile. Then Edward was twisting in his seat to sit beside him, their legs pressed together, and Robert forced to keep his breathing steady as their eyes met.  
  
“Robert,” he said quietly, “you know that you are very important to me, don’t you?”  
  
There wasn’t a reply; all that he could manage was a nod.  
  
“I just… I’m not really sure not to say.”  
  
Silver-tongued Edward. Businessman Edward. Edward, who _always_ knew what to say and how to make people feel at ease around him. But now he swallowed nervously and put one hand on Robert’s knee. It felt heavier and hotter than it could possibly have really been.  
  
“I’m not very experienced in life,” Edward said, as if it was a confession. “I grew up quite isolated, out in the country, and coming to the city has been something very different for me. Giselle is…”  
  
“Edward, please,” he croaked.  
  
“She is very dear to me. My parents like her. But when I am with you I could not think of her for a moment.”  
  
There was a pained moment of silence; Edward reached up to touch Robert’s cheek gently, but he flinched away from the contact. Edward looked hurt. From the front seat, the taxi driver coughed pointedly to get their attention and pointed out that they had reached the end of the journey, whereupon Robert took the opportunity to pay the main and fall out of the cab so fast that he hardly remembered to unbuckle his seatbelt before he did.  
  
He went to take the stairs, but Edward grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the lift. He began to protest as the doors closed, but then hands were in his hair and a mouth was on his and they kissed like clumsy teenagers. Robert gasped, but pulled Edward closer, tongues slipping into each other’s mouths and bodies pressing hard together.  
  
The lift stopped, and Robert dragged them apart, but Edward clung to his hands. “Please,” he said, and it was almost a whisper. “I finally know what I want here.”  
  
They paused, breathlessly, but Robert could feel a twist of desire in his belly and a faint ache in his heart. “Come on,” he said finally, and Edward was right, it was impossible for Nancy to be anything more than a fleeting thought in his head as he pulled the younger man into his flat, into his bedroom, onto the bed.  
  
He pinned Edward to the bed, hands on his shoulders, hips pressed together. Edward lay beneath him, not quite passive but receptive, reaching up to caress Robert’s cheeks.  
  
“Undo your pants,” Robert said, rising up onto his knees. Edward looked back at him with blinking uncertainty, but he gestured down to the man’s own growing hardness then went fumbling in the bedside cabinet for lube and a condom. By the time that he straightened up over Edward again, the man had managed to undo his pants and push his boxers down, his cock hanging out heavy and uncut. “Christ,” he whispered, feeling his own erection start at the sight, then tugged Edward’s pants down a little further to better expose him.  
  
He coated one hand in lube, holding the condom in his mouth as he wrapped it around Edward’s shaft, supporting his weight on the other. Edward groaned, letting his head fall back and his hair fall in his eyes, as Robert watched with greedy eyes the cock in his hands harden, thicken, the glans emerging as the foreskin drew back. It was curiously intimate to watch, and Robert drew his hand up for a moment to run his fingertips over the head, hearing Edward hitch his breath at the touch.  
  
Ripping open the condom, he pressed it to the head of Edward’s cock and then rolled it slowly downwards, smoothing the latex to skin in a slow, firm stroke. He let his hand move up and down to the rhythm of Edward’s breathing, watching his flushed cheeks and the sweat on his brow, the flickers of his closed eyes.  
  
Still watching Edward’s face, he bent down, running two fingers along the vein on the underside of the cock as he reached and, with just the tip of his tongue, drew a line across the tip. Edward almost yelped, snapping up onto his elbows to look down in astonishment.  
  
“Do you not…” Robert looked at him in surprise.  
  
“No, not really… well…” Edward was already flushed, but he looked as if he would have blushed further if he could have done. “Giselle and I don’t really… do much. You know. Occasionally…”  
  
“I hear you,” said Robert softly. “Lie back.”  
  
Edward paused, breathless, then did so and lay back onto the cushions. Robert wrapped his thumb and forefinger around the man’s cock, stroking slowly to build a gentle rhythm, then bent down and gently closed his mouth around the head. Another groan did for his reward. He let his tongue start to move, drawing swathes and patterns, tracing round the edge and then moving back to press against the middle, Edward panting and making little groaning sounds deep in his throat. A light suck, and his hips bucked fiercely, almost throwing Robert off altogether.  
  
“Hey,” he said playfully, looking up in time to see Edward covering his face with his hands. Robert’s face fell, and he asked more quietly: “Are you sure that you want this?”  
  
“Oh god, yes,” said Edward, desperation seeping into his voice. “I need it.”  
  
It was more than clear. Robert bent down again, closing his mouth around Edward’s cock. It had been so long since he had done this; he had tried to pretend somewhere from high school onwards that he was straight, had only acted on his attraction to women. But he had missed this, as he ran his hands over Edward’s thighs and his tongue over his cock, missed having another man beneath him.  
  
He let his hand move faster, his tongue press harder, feeling Edward start to rock his hips, thigh muscles tensing as he drew closer and closer to release. As Edward gave a strangled cry, Robert sat upright again, pumping hard with his hand as he watched Edward come in repeated thrusts, sweat beading on his forehead and hands shaking at his sides.  
  
“Oh god…” Edward breathed. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then sat up, grabbing Robert’s shirt and pulling him over to kiss him once again. “You taste of strawberry,” he muttered as he pulled away.  
  
“Flavoured lube,” Robert replied, fairly out of breath himself. He could feel his erection pressing against the seam of his pants, but tried to push it aside as he ran his non-slippery hand through Edward’s hair. “This is… this is what you want?”  
  
Edward simply nodded, hands stroking Robert’s face once again.  
  
“All right,” said Robert, although he knew that it wasn’t at all. He didn’t have a clue what to do, in fact, aside from the fact that on his side he was going to have to talk to Nancy.  
  
That was going to be bad enough. He didn’t want to think about what talking to Giselle was going to be like.  
  
“We can’t do it like this, though,” he continued, voice growing a little thicker. Edward reached down with one hand, cupping him through his jeans, and Robert made a gulping sound before forcing himself to speak again. “You have to… ah… you have to talk to Giselle. You have to _stop_ with Giselle.”  
  
“I know,” Edward whispered, sounding utterly miserable. Robert tilted his chin up and kissed him hard on the mouth.  
  
“We can do this,” he said. “Okay? You’re in the city now. It’s time to do what you want.”  
  
Edward nodded, continued rubbing his hand on Robert’s crotch, and Robert bit back a groan. He wanted to pull Edward down on the bed, to continue, but he knew that Giselle would be right _next door_ and the guilt was finally beginning to intrude on him on that front, and with regard to Nancy too. They were both such sweet women, so nice, but having Edward in his arms was just perfect.  
  
His phone alarm sounded; Robert drew back, eyes snapping open, as he realised the time. “Shit,” he said, then, louder, “ _shit_!”  
  
“What is it?” said Edward. Robert was scrambling off the bed, adjusting his pants to try and make them as bearable as possible, grabbing his jacket off the chair by the desk.  
  
“I’ve got to pick Morgan up from the… damn.” He realised that his hand was still covered in lube, and grabbed a towel out of the hamper to wipe it clean. “I’ve got to pick Morgan up. And you need to go home. I’m sorry, Edward…”  
  
“No,” said Edward, a little more firmly than before. He shifted round to the edge of the bed, then stood up before putting his clothes back into place. He even tucked his shirt back in. “Morgan comes first.”  
  
“Let yourself out,” Robert replied, and then he was already running out of the door.  


 

 

 

  
  
Morgan still didn’t like her martial arts classes; he tried to coax her into going a couple more weeks, to see if the excitement would kick in and she would actually start to be at least all right with them, even if she didn’t much like them. Once they got home, he served up a pre-prepared dinner, hurried her into bed, and then collapsed onto the sofa with a bottle of wine.  
  
He didn’t, however, get very far through it. To be precise, he was only half way down the first glass when the phone rang, and he grabbed it and answered it without thinking.  
  
“Robert Philip speaking.”  
  
_“Robert, what the **hell** is going on?”_  
  
It was Nancy, and she was angry. Robert sat up straight and put the wine glass down quickly, throat going tight. “What do you mean?”  
  
_“I have Giselle sobbing on my sofa with something about Edward leaving her, and I can’t get a word of sense out of her.”_  
  
“But why are you ringing _me_?” he protested. Guilt stabbed into his stomach again, and he wondered how much Edward had said, but then there was a knocking at the door. “Oh, shit… hang on, there’s someone at the door.”  
  
_”If it’s Edward, it’s a good thing that he’s going to you,”_ Nancy seethed. _”Because I will kill him if I catch him.”_  
  
“Better dumped than with someone who doesn’t love her,” Robert snapped as he crossed the apartment. The silence on the far end of the phone was downright dangerous, and he winced to himself even though Nancy couldn’t see the movement. “Look,” he said more quietly, as the knocking at the door became insistent. “We both knew that they were young. You know how things were when we’re that age. Things change a lot. Hang on, just let me…”  
  
He opened the door, to find Edward outside, his eyes red and hair bedraggled, clutching a mostly-empty bottle of whiskey. Well, that rather outdid the wine.  
  
“I’ve got Edward here,” Robert said into the phone, as he let Edward into the house. Even as he was closing the door, he heard the sound of a body collapsing onto the sofa. “He doesn’t look to be in a great shape either. Look, I’ll talk to him, and you talk to her, and we’ll see if we can calm them down, all right?”  
  
_”I’ll ring you back later,”_ said Nancy grimly. _”Try to find out what’s happened.”_  
  
The problem was, reflected Robert as he put the phone down, that he already knew what had happened. _He_ had happened, and things had been messed up next door because of it, and now they were going to have to take it all apart again to try and make some sense.  
  
He resolved to tell Nancy next time she rang. Hopefully she wouldn’t be able to kill him from the end of a phone, after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No smut in this chapter.

Nancy put the phone down, resisting the urge to throw it against the wall, and turned back to Giselle. It had taken over ten minutes for her to think that it was fair to leave the poor girl alone for five minutes to ring Robert, and she was certainly still far from calm.  
  
She grabbed another box of tissues on the way back into the living room, and scooped up the bin on the way past to clear the pile of tissues on the table. Setting them both down, she lowered herself to sit on the floor beside Giselle, who was cross-legged in a nightgown and coat and sniffling unfortunately. Somehow, Nancy had expected that she would look pretty even when she was crying, but the truth was that Giselle went red-eyed and wobbly-lipped just like the rest of them. On the other hand, it was curiously endearing.  
  
“Come on,” said Nancy gently, throwing her arm around Giselle’s shoulders and squeezing her tight. “It’ll be okay. I’m sure that it’s just an argument.”  
  
Giselle shook her head urgently, but didn’t manage to say anything through a fresh wave of tears. Nancy waited for them to subside, plucked out the current soggy tissue, and replaced it with a fresh one.  
  
“It was… an argument, right?” she said carefully. Giselle didn’t look hurt, just upset and maybe frightened, but Nancy swore that if Edward had done or even threatened anything physical against her, then the police were never going to find the pieces.  
  
“H-he just said he needed…” she hiccoughed and whimpered into the tissue. Nancy started to rub circles on her back, slow and supposed-to-be soothing. “Needed to talk to me,” Giselle finished, all in one breath.  
  
Nancy waited to see if there was anything more.  
  
“He’s in love with someone else,” Giselle said finally, and started crying all over again. Nancy gave a sympathetic sigh and pulled the girl to her chest, rocking her back and forth. She remembered doing this for her friends when they broke up with their latest boyfriend; it seemed like she was always the one that people came crying to. Giselle smelt of lavender and washing powder, and Nancy’s hold became just a little bit tighter as she remembered all of the times that they had spent together.  
  
Giselle tucked her head under Nancy’s chin, and they sat together for a while; Nancy wasn’t even sure how long, but eventually it seemed like the tears were coming to an end, as if Giselle didn’t have any left. Nancy pulled back a little and tucked the red hair behind her ear.  
  
“He told you that?” she said finally. Giselle nodded, head hanging. Another sigh escaped Nancy’s lips, and she shook her head, not sure whether to be sorry for them both or not. “Did he say who?”  
  
“No,” she replied in a whimper, and Nancy pushed aside any further questions that she might have had.  
  
“All right,” she said, “all right. You sit here… I’m going to get a hairbrush; we can’t have you sleeping with your hair all over the place like that, can we?”  
  
Giselle managed a weak giggle, and Nancy went through to her room to grab her hairbrush and some spare elastics. Back in the living room, she brushed Giselle’s hair for some time, seeing in the way she stopped shaking that it was calming, then braided it and tied it off in one neat plait down her back.  
  
“And you can’t sleep in that coat, either,” she added.  
  
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep,” Giselle replied.  
  
“Now, don’t talk like that,” said Nancy, feeling as if she was being far more practical than she had actually managed in a long time. Normally Robert was the practical one, and she was allowed to think and have ideas and do things on a whim, but Giselle made her feel as if she was on the other side of the equation. “Come on, I’ll sleep on the sofa, and you can have my bed for the night.”  
  
“Oh no,” said Giselle, taking Nancy’s hands in hers. “I couldn’t throw you out of bed! You’ve already been so good to me!”  
  
“What do you suggest? That we share?” she joked.  
  
Giselle blinked. “Why not?”  
  
_Because it’s not been all that long since I had my last dream about ripping your clothes off and thoroughly corrupting you,_ Nancy thought, though she didn’t say it and all that she wanted to do to Giselle right now was cuddle her tight and not let go. Out loud, she said: “Like a sleepover, then. Just don’t steal all the sheets.”  
  
They both laughed a little bit at that, even if it felt half-hearted. Later, curled up tight in the bed that Giselle hadn’t realised would be a single, Nancy ended up being the latter of them to fall asleep, with her arm protectively around Giselle’s back and the other tucked beneath the pillows.  
  


 

 

 

  
  
Nancy woke up with a face full of red hair, one dead arm and a distinct feeling that this was _right_. Before she could extricate herself from the bed, however, Giselle had started to wake up as well, and with a sleepy stretch almost fell off the bed before Nancy could lunge across and catch her. They both started laughing and managed to get up without any further incident, although Nancy found her breath catching slightly in her throat when she saw Giselle putting on the borrowed clothes she was being leant for the day. There was nothing that Nancy could do about the slippers, however, so they remained on Giselle’s feet as they made their way back over to the apartment block.  
  
She never had got round to ringing Robert the previous night, she realised as it started raining and Giselle withdrew into herself. Nancy reached over to take the woman’s hand and squeezed it, but the smile she received lasted for only a moment before fading once again. When they arrived, she told the driver to keep the change before they ran for the building, but there were so many puddles that Giselle ended up barefoot as they got into the elevator and headed back upstairs.  
  
“It’s going to be all right,” Nancy said softly, as she realised Giselle’s hand was shaking. “We’re going to go and talk to him, and remember, whatever happens, you’ve got me.”  
  
A pause, then Giselle nodded. “Yes. I’ve got you.” She squeezed Nancy’s hand in reply then, just before the doors pinged open leant across to give her a peck on the cheek.  
  
Nancy’s heart fluttered. Bad timing, she told herself, and forcefully ignored it, as she marched over to Edward’s door and rang the bell.  
  
There was no response.  
  
Frowning, she tried again, this time leaning on it for longer. When there was still nothing, she hammered on the door with her fist, and considered calling Edward some inventively crude names, when Robert’s door opened instead.  
  
“He’s in here still,” Robert said by way of explanation. He held the door open for both of the women to come in, Giselle taking hold of Nancy’s hand once again.  
  
Edward was sitting on the couch, wearing clothes that definitely looked as if he’d slept in them, with an empty whiskey bottle in front of him and his head in his hands. There was a blanket bundled up behind him, but neither he nor Robert looked as if he’d managed to do much sleeping, with heavy bags under their eyes.  
  
“I’ve taken Morgan round to Mrs Hawkins for the day. She likes going there, gets to cook. And wind up Jim.”  
  
Nancy nodded, but didn’t find it in herself to take up the opportunity for humour that she was being offered. For a moment, Edward looked up from behind his hands, but either the morning was too bright or he simply couldn’t face talking to Giselle, because he groaned and put his face back into his hands once again. She looked pointedly at Robert, who shrugged, but the expression on his face told her that he was basically lying by omission.  
  
“Sit down, Giselle,” said Nancy, steering her over to the armchair and guiding her down into it. She walked over to Robert, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him down so that they were face-to-face. “What have you done?” she hissed.  
  
He paused, as if considering. That was not the answer she wanted, and she narrowed her eyes at him warning. “What has Giselle told you?” he said finally.  
  
“That Edward dumped her because he said he was in love with someone else,” she replied.  
  
Robert swallowed, then finally spoke. “That someone else is me.”  
  
She released him, actually staggering back a couple of steps as she looked at him in horror. Robert, of all people Robert? Staid and sensible and…  
  
She threw Giselle’s soggy slippers at him in frustration, and he looked like a puppy that had been caught peeing in the corner. “Was this before or after we spoke about this?” she asked.  
  
“After,” he said, expression now turning pained. He held out his hands placatingly and took a step towards her, but she raised a warning finger. “Please, Nancy… it just happened. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to. But it’s happened, and now…”  
  
“And now Giselle is going to be kicked out of the apartment, and she’s got nowhere to live, and-”  
  
“And you are more angry about Giselle than about the fact that I’m the other man?”  
  
It actually caught her off-guard, and she looked at him in astonishment. Just a few weeks before Edward and Giselle had come into their lives, they had been having conversations which had been tentatively alluding to a possible engagement in the hypothetical future.  
  
Then again, she supposed that the number of constraints on that sentence should have told her that there was something else that they had to think about.  
  
“So you slept with him,” she said coldly.  
  
She could see in his face that he was almost considering saying no, and then he nodded. She wasn’t even going to _ask_ what sex act had taken place that he could possibly think it fell into some sort of grey area.  
  
“How long ago?”  
  
“Not long,” he said, and she was strangely thankful that he was not more precise than that.  
  
Nancy grimaced, putting her hands over her face for a moment to try and work out just how to sort this out. The one suggestion that her head wanted to make, she had to admit, might not have been coming from her head at all (whether it was her heart or her nether regions, however, she was not yet up to ascertaining) and involved sweeping Giselle off to a new life and leaving the men to sort themselves out.  
  
It was so very, very tempting.  
  
Instead she turned on her heel, and realised that this argument had not actually been taking place out of earshot of Edward and Giselle at all. Edward was now simply hanging his head, whilst Giselle was looking at them, all colour drained even from her usually pale features. Then she looked down at her hands for a moment, rose to her feet, and walked over to Edward. Before Nancy could say anything, she had grabbed the man by the wrists and pull him upright so that she could look him in the eye. Her lips trembled, then she grabbed his cheeks and pulled him down, standing on tiptoe to kiss him on the forehead.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, and stroked his cheek gently. “But I am glad that you’ve found someone you can love. I hope that you’re happy.”  
  
Tears rolled down Edward’s cheeks.  
  
“Give me the keys so I can get my things,” Giselle continued. “I’ll ring my parents today.”  
  
He produced his keys from his pocket with a shaking hand, and she took them, closing her hand slowly around them. Giselle drew herself upright and stepped away, turning to Robert with glistening eyes but an upright posture.  
  
“Take care of him, Robert,” she said, and then turned back towards the door once again.  
  
There was a moment of absolute shock in her wake, as the door clicked closed behind her, then Nancy managed to kick her brain back out of neutral. She grabbed the slippers off the floor once again, entertained the idea of slapping Robert but turned against it, and worked instead on taking a leaf out of Giselle’s book.  
  
She sighed. “Be happy, Robert,” she said. “That’s the important thing. Go be happy.”  
  
The words almost made her want to cry herself, but she swallowed the urge back as she left the apartment, closing the door a little too heavily behind her. The door to what had been Edward and Giselle’s apartment was still ajar, and Nancy rapped lightly on it before letting herself in.  
  
“Giselle?” she called softly.  
  
There was no reply, but she could hear movement in the bedrooms and walked through to the pink-lace room that she had seen Giselle in all of those weeks before. There was a large suitcase open on Giselle’s bed, already half-packed, with items that were neatly folded and must have been lifted straight out of the drawers as they were. Giselle was emptying another drawer, this one of skirts and pants that Nancy had a strong suspicion she had made herself, and looked up in surprise at the noise.  
  
“Hey, babe,” she said.  
  
Giselle gave a wan smile.  
  
“That was gracious,” Nancy said, walking over and sitting down on the edge of the bed. It was soft, and the whole room smelt faintly of perfume. “Telling him that.”  
  
Giselle shrugged, and rearranged a couple of the piles inside the suitcase. Her lip trembled slightly again, but she sniffed and pulled herself together. “I was thinking last night,” she said, and Nancy wondered when but ignored that practical part of her mind, “about what he said. It’s no good my staying, if he’s in love with someone else. It isn’t right for either of us. He should be with Robert.”  
  
She checked each of the drawers in turn, then started taking things from her dressing table and packing them in around the edge of the suitcase.  
  
“Anyway, as you said… you just know when you’re in love. If I had to ask you about Edward, then I obviously wasn’t really in love with him.”  
  
Nancy felt as if her heart was breaking as Giselle stopped, looking up with those beautiful blue-green eyes, then stepped round to stand in front of her. Giselle swallowed, then reached up and brushed a stray bit of Nancy’s hair off her face, then bent down and kissed her.  
  
On the mouth. Sweetly.  
  
Nancy gasped, and looked at Giselle in shock. “You mean…”  
  
“I thought you might know, when I asked you about love,” Giselle said quietly. “I didn’t want to hurt Edward, not at all. He is so sweet. But…” her fingers traced down Nancy’s cheek, the movement very tender. “You do just know.”  
  
Rising to her feet, Nancy wrapped her arms around Giselle, and kissed her in return. This time it was far less chaste, less sweet, but Giselle tasted just like Nancy had dreamed that she would, and their arms tightened around each other as if they were terrified of letting go.  
  
“Don’t call your parents,” Nancy whispered, when they finally broke apart the kiss. “Come and stay with me.”  
  
Giselle smiled softly. “I was rather hoping that you’d say that.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut notes: More in this chapter! F/f sex with blindfold, cunnilingus, vibrator/dildo. M/m sex with rimming, anal sex with the bottom masturbating himself.

Even once they had a double bed, they tended to curl up close in the night. Most days, Nancy would wake up to find her arms wrapped around Giselle, or the other way round, and frankly she occasionally wondered why they had bothered getting a double at all. Then again, there were other uses for the space than sleeping.  
  
It was a surprise, then, when she awoke one morning to find the bed empty. Nancy rubbed her eyes and looked around in confusion, then smiled softly as she heard singing from elsewhere in the apartment. That explained it. With a yawn, Nancy unfolded herself out of bed and wandered through to the kitchen, where Giselle was fussing over a bunch of flowers on the table.  
  
“What are you doing?” she asked softly.  
  
Giselle looked up, all wide eyes and sweet smile. “I was planning on making breakfast,” she said.  
  
“Before I’m even awake?” Nancy leant hip-first on the table, reaching out to tuck one hand under Giselle’s chin and pull her closer.  
  
“It is our one-month anniversary,” said Giselle softly.  
  
“True,” she replied. “But I have some other ideas for what we could do to celebrate.”  
  
With that, she drew Giselle into a kiss, hearing a soft murmur of satisfaction in response. She slipped her tongue into the woman’s mouth, gently probing, even as she slipped her hands around Giselle’s waist. Giselle all but melted into her, mouth opening up with a sigh.  
  
With every kiss, it was like she learnt just a little more. She cupped Giselle’s jaw with her hands, then let them slip down, pushing straps off shoulders and started to push down her dress.  
  
“Nancy!” Giselle gasped. “In the kitchen…”  
  
She chuckled under her breath. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a present for you waiting in the bedroom.” But then Nancy pressed the tip of her finger to Giselle’s lips, drew down the bodice of her dress a little further – lord, who would have thought a woman going with a bra could be quite so sexy? – and pressed her mouth to Giselle’s breast, tongue tracing a circle around the hardening nipple. Giselle wrapped her lips around the proffered finger in response, and Nancy grinned as she drew a line with her tongue all the way up Giselle’s slight breast.  
  
Both hands wrapped around Giselle’s tiny waist as she pressed one more kiss to the centre of her chest, then straightened up with a toss of her hair. “Come on,” she said softly. “Let’s go get that present.”  
  
“Do I get to unwrap it?” Giselle replied.  
  
“Mmm… I think so,” said Nancy.  
  
Giselle allowed herself to be led by the hand into the bedroom, giving a squeal when Nancy whipped the ribbon from her dress and wrapped it over her eyes but not protesting. It was no work at all to undress her: fingers hooked over the top of her dress and peeling downwards was enough to remove the dress, the stockings and the underwear beneath all in one go, and Nancy placed a gentle kiss on each thigh as Giselle stepped delicately out of her clothes and stood, gloriously naked, in front of her.  
  
“Your turn,” Nancy said softly.  
  
Biting her lip and suppressing giggles, Giselle reached out blindly until her hands fell onto Nancy’s shoulders. One hand drifted up to brush over Nancy’s neck, then to push her hair back, then she slid her hands down and started struggling with the intricacies of the buttons on Nancy’s pyjama top. Nancy watched the concentration on her face, parted lips and tongue stuck slightly out, and the only thing that stopped her from grabbing Giselle and kissing her all over again is the thought that, if she tried that, she might _never_ get this pyjama top taken off.  
  
Finally, Giselle conquered the buttons, and apparently chose to celebrate this victory by running her hands, slowly and hungrily, over Nancy’s stomach, up to her shoulders, and then down again to cover her breasts. She moved her hands slowly, almost massaging, rubbing her thumbs against Nancy’s nipples and drawing a sigh. Nancy shrugged off the top, letting her skin breathe once again, as Giselle bent down to slowly lick Nancy’s belly.  
  
It made her gasp, though it was hardly the first time that Giselle had done such a thing. Giselle responded with a soft bite, hardly a touch with her teeth at all, then continued lowering herself down, drawing Nancy’s pyjama bottoms with her. She ran her hands slowly back up Nancy’s legs, pressing palms to skin, rising slowly until her face was on a level with Nancy’s sex.  
  
“Can I have my present now?” she said, laughter in her voice, as she ran the very tips of her fingers over Nancy’s curls. Nancy ran her hand through the glorious red hair in response.  
  
“Oh, this is only the first part,” she replied.  
  
Giselle laughed again, muttered something that might have been ‘thank goodness’, and bent down to kiss the crease of Nancy’s thigh once again. She bought one hand up, trailing oh, so lightly over Nancy’s skin, teasingly soft. A sigh escaped Nancy’s lips, but Giselle did not look round, her expression intent beneath the blindfold that she wore still. She raised her hand again, this time letting the tip of her finger just slip between Nancy’s lower lips, cool against the heat, all the way through to the front.  
  
Desire swelled in her chest, but Nancy forced herself to keep standing, breathing deeply, as Giselle used both hands to gently push Nancy’s legs apart a little, before leaning in and simply _breathing_ , slow and cool, across her skin. Nancy gasped; that _was_ new. A pause, and then Giselle breathed again, the sensation rolling across heated skin, and finally – it felt like finally – giving a delicate lick to the skin. With her mouth she explored all over again, tracing every inch of Nancy’s skin, her breath feeling less cold as she began to almost pant. Her tongue picked out each sensitive point, not just the clitoris but each place that made Nancy sigh or draw in her breath, before reaching to play with her tongue at Nancy’s entrance.  
  
Giselle’s nose brushed her skin, and Nancy shivered with a fresh rush of desire. It made Giselle pause; tilting her head up slightly, she said, “Is everything okay?”  
  
“Oh yes,” said Nancy breathlessly. She hooked her hands beneath Giselle’s arms, drew her to her feet, and began to gently walk her backwards. When Giselle’s legs bumped against the bed, she pushed her back playfully. “Lie down. I’ll just be a moment.”  
  
Perhaps it was just her imagination, or perhaps Giselle’s smile really had become a little more wicked in these past few weeks. Nancy watched as Giselle moved up the bed and then lay back, arms flung wide, hair a fan around her head. Nancy knew full well that she could have just stood there and drunk in the wonderful sight, but she’d be planning this for a while. Crouching down, she drew out a plain cardboard box from under the bed, and from it produced Giselle’s present.  
  
She clambered onto the bed, earning another surprised shriek, and kissed Giselle to make her be quiet. Hands wound into her hair, and Nancy hooked one leg over Giselle’s, rubbing her thigh into the woman’s groin.  
  
“Are you already wet?” she murmured in Giselle’s ear. Giselle, apparently running out of words, simply gave a little moan. “Waiting for this?”  
  
She licked the tip of the toy that she had pulled from under the bed, and ran it down Giselle’s stomach. Giselle gasped and half-sat up, reaching up to pull the blindfold off her eyes, and looked in near-amazement at the slender pale blue shaft that Nancy was still brushing against her stomach.  
  
“Happy anniversary,” Nancy said.  
  
She ran the toy all the way up to Giselle’s lips, tapping it gently against them, until Giselle parted them and licked it in turn. New relationship, new toys, she’d figured; besides, she had tried out of a certain loyalty to Robert to get rid of all of her old ones.  
  
Right now, though, she just wanted to see Giselle’s reaction to it.  
  
She pressed the button on the end and let it buzz to life in her fingers, then dragged it slowly down Giselle’s body again. The tip traced down, and Giselle’s thighs parted for it; Nancy gave a wry smile as she pressed the vibrator lightly against the redhead’s clitoris.  
  
Giselle gasped, tilting her head back and arching her back. It only served to profile her breasts quite perfectly, as Nancy began to work the vibrator back and forth in a slow, rocking motion. As if she had not been aroused enough, the sight of Giselle now gasping and lifting her hips was enough to make her clamp her thighs together tighter.  
  
“Is that good?” Nancy breathed. Giselle nodded, biting her lip again. “Tell me.”  
  
“So good,” said Giselle. “Oh – oh! Please…”  
  
She should have guessed that coherence would be too much to ask for. Capturing Giselle in another heated kissed, Nancy shifted round and with a shift of her wrist slid the shaft inside Giselle. A moan said that she was doing the right thing; gentle thrusts drew more and more ragged breathing as Giselle’s hips started pumping in return.  
  
The toy was getting slick in her hand, Giselle’s gasps becoming more and more needy. Warmth flooded through her as well, warmth of the knowledge that this strange, beautiful, _eccentric_ woman was in her life and heart and bed, alongside the starting of an ache between her thighs. She was watching Giselle’s expression so intently that she did not notice the hand creeping towards her own body until Giselle was reaching with slick fingers for Nancy’s own arousal, coaxing little strokes like the most terrible teasing when Giselle was already panting and whispering in a begging voice for more.  
  
Nancy could feel the pressure building through her body, feel the tensing of her muscles, but her eyes were fixed on Giselle’s expression – half concentration, half distant pleasure – as she withdrew the vibe again, despite a moan of protest, and turned it back to Giselle’s clitoris.  
  
She could see it building, in the way that Giselle caught her breath, in the way that she threw her head back and bent one leg up slightly. As Giselle cried out, back arching, Nancy slid her hand down to feel the clenching of Giselle’s inner muscles, and that as much as the touches against her own body sent the waves of pleasure crashing down over her, colours lighting up behind her closed eyes as she fell back onto the bed beside Giselle.  
  
For a moment they both lay there, breathless, until Nancy remembered to turn off the vibrator once again.  
  
“That,” Giselle said finally, “was a good anniversary present.”  
  
Nancy laughed. “I’m not sure how I’ll top that for _two_ months, though.”  
  
Fingertips tip-toed across her bare chest. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll think of something…”  
  


~

  
  
Okay, so things could have gone better. A _lot_ better. But, Robert considered, they could also have done far worse. Nancy and Giselle seemed happy, Edward seemed _more_ than happy, and Morgan seemed to enjoy having Edward around as ‘Dad’s new boyfriend’.  
  
And Robert? Well, he had to admit that he was certainly happy.  
  
He was happy as he pulled Edward into his bedroom once again, happy as they divested themselves of their clothes, and very happy indeed by the time that he had Edward bent over his bed, vocally making his own pleasure on the matter very well known indeed.  
  
Robert ran his slicked fingers around the exposed anus before him, tracing the soft and tightly wrinkled skin with one hand whilst the other stroked Edward’s thigh. Edward was still warm and damp from the shower he had just stumbled out of; it had been too easy an invitation to drag him to bed once again. Bending, Robert drew his tongue over Edward’s skin, the scent of flesh and soap mingling in the air, and heard an enthusiastic grunt as his tongue flicked at the entrance.  
  
“Please, Robert, keep going,” Edward was begging. Robert let the movements of his tongue become faster, swirling over skin and pushing gently beyond the ring of muscle there. “God, Robert, it feels so good…”  
  
He didn’t have to move his hand far to find that Edward was already hard; he gave a sly tug to hear the man groan with pleasure at the touch.  
  
“Robert, don’t tease,” Edward panted. What he lacked in experience, Robert had quickly realised, he more than made up for in enthusiasm, and now he tilted his hips back pointedly.  
  
Robert smacked him lightly on the ass, laughing as he straightened up, and in just a couple of strokes bought himself back to full hardness once again. He guided his cock to Edward’s ass, letting them just brush against each other for a moment, until Edward made a noise of desperate annoyance and he gently guided himself in.  
  
“Oh, that’s better,” said Edward. His words never failed to leave Robert smiling, especially when he spoke like this, rocking the hips which Robert’s hands were locked around even as Robert began to gently thrust. “Oh yes, let me feel you… fill me up…”  
  
For Edward’s puritan mouth, it was all but filthy, and Robert felt as if his whole body was pulsing with desire as he buried himself in Edward, over and over, feeling the heat surrounding his cock and hearing Edward’s sounds of pleasure with every movement either of them made. He knew, rationally, that this was still a ‘honeymoon’, that they had a future of planning and negotiating and working out how things were going to be, but for a few weeks at least he did not want to be rational. He wanted this, wanted to fill Edward and wanted to coax Edward into returning the favour, wanted to lie around and talk nonsense whilst they were naked in bed together, wanted to spend day after day with him.  
  
And, right now, he wanted to fuck the man senseless, and from the sounds that Edward was making, he was far from averse to the idea.  
  
“Please, Robert, I’m so close,” Edward was saying, and Robert glanced down to see that he had removed one hand from the bed, a hand that must by now be wrapped around his cock. “ _Please_.”  
  
Robert could feel it building in him as well, the need to bury himself in Edward becoming stronger and stronger, his breath growing increasingly ragged and his movements sharper. With a final rush, like a burst, he came in a sharp burst and with a few final, hard thrusts. He stood for a moment, panting, and was about to draw back when a hand was laid over his and he leant round to hear Edward speaking.  
  
“Stay there… a moment longer.”  
  
“Yeah,” he said. “I will.”  
  
He returned to rubbing Edward’s thighs, listening to the sounds of satisfaction as the younger man stroked himself to completion, feeling the sharp tense of muscles as he came. Finally, he allowed himself to slip out, grabbing a towel off the floor once again.  
  
“Looks like I might have ruined the good work of your shower,” he observed, amused, as Edward rolled over onto his back and gave him a cocky grin.  
  
“Well, we could always have another.”  
  
“Oh no,” said Robert with a wag of his finger. “Last time we both tried to fit in, you fell over. I’m not risking that again.”  
  
Before Edward could argue the point – and Robert could see from the look in his eyes that he intended to, albeit playfully – his phone sounded from the bedside table, and he grabbed it without thinking. Part of being both a lawyer and father, he supposed.  
  
“What is it?” Edward asked.  
  
“Just a reminder about dinner this evening,” Robert replied, locking the screen and putting it back down again. “Nancy says that Giselle’s determined to bring dessert, so don’t bother making one.”  
  
“Ah,” said Edward, mock-seriously, then broke into a grin when Robert gave him a pointed look. “Don’t sweat it. You’ll be a perfect host.” He swatted Robert’s thigh as he got to his feet. “Just keep your clothes on, okay?”  
  
“I could say the same,” said Robert, but couldn’t help laughing. Once Edward had sauntered, naked, back out of the room again, he shook his head and finally picked up the phone again to write a reply.  
  
_It’ll be great to see you again. We’ll provide the wine. See you at six._


End file.
